Note: What I''m about to write about has always been a "touchy" subject for my audiences. So, just take it for what it is and don't read too much into it. It does not represents a problem that ALL caterers have. That being said, this topic is central in creating proper profit in a catering business.
Unwise sale? How can any sale be unwise? Sometimes it’s important to keep my staff working? We’re here anyway... so why not take the smaller orders?
No sale is unwise if you want to take it. After all it is your business and you have the right to do with it what you want. The question is why you’re taking a particular order. So, once again I ask the question...What is an unwise sale?
An unwise sale is one that causes you loss of profit or lessens the quality of your life. An interesting answer... don’t you think? How can a sale lose profit? Simple... it is either not priced correctly, or it is too small, or it’s the wrong order for the flow of a particular catering day.
An unwise sale is created when the price is incorrect and/or the number of guests are too few.To put this another way, the problem rests with the price being too low and the number of guests also being too few. A $7.00 box lunch for 9 guests is probably an unwise sale. However, the same $7.00 box lunch for 45 guests is a better sale.
On the other hand, a $1.22 per person charge for a day care meal for 100 is probably unwise even if it is a seven day a week order. However, a $1.22 for 800 per day is a great sale. A caterer’s quality of life is also affected by the unwise sale. Imagine coming in on a Sunday for an order that generated only $63. You need to understand that we’re taking a “catering” view in this education. Other forms of foodservice, like restaurants, might find it well to take any order that comes along. Catering, however, is different.
Many have learned that a great day can become a bad day simply by taking that one order that turns out to be the “order from hell”! So, it is important to have some kind of policy as to which are unwise orders.
Another reason a sale becomes unwise deals with the product line mix on a particular day. When a caterer has three weddings leaving their kitchen on a busy Saturday, it is unwise to also have a drop-off cold buffet for 25 on the same day. The Saturday cold buffet, on a busy full-service day, will create real, or false, problems for the culinary and delivery staff. When all attention should be focused on the importance of high volume orders, the kitchen staff is taking time to create the smaller cold buffet. By the way, the host that gets the drop off cold buffet will probably call you back to tell you to bring over some additional mustard because they don’t think they have enough!
For those caterers who still say “An order is an order” or “A sale is a sale” or “A dollar is a dollar” I can only say... that is not necessarily true.
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